1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods for making a monotype artwork, and more particularly to the use of acrylic paint and pigments in the making of a monotype artwork.
2. Description of the Prior Art
By definition, a fine art monotype is an image rendered by hand on a support surface (referred to as a plate) and then, traditionally, transferred to paper under pressure of the etching press. It is incapable of being editioned because no permanent pattern is established on the plate surface. A monoprint method includes a monoprint plate which contains important elements of etched, engraved or cut lines and textures that, along with hand application of painted imagery allow for subsequent printings to exhibit identical marks while retaining a one-of-a-kind identity.
Most monotype artists are familiar with the traditional materials and methods used in their making. Suffice to say that oilbase pigments remain wet long enough to allow ample time before printing is necessary and that waterbase pigments are preferably printed after they dry being easily reactivated by dampened paper under pressure. In both cases the material birth of the traditional monotype depends on the pressure of the etching press, a Japanese baren, squeegee, spoon or some such device in order to wed pigments with paper. In the printing process the exposed top layer of the image is forever buried within the paper fibers while, simultaneously, the heretofore unseen bottom layer adhering to the plate is released disclosing the face of the plate mirrored within the content of the image.
In the use of acrylic pigments, media and gels in a monotype process, time becomes a significant issue due to a characteristic rapid rate of drying and polymerization. The usual approach to the making of acrylic monotypes, especially when formal demands require some degree of complexity, is to print segments of the composition, one at a time, before they dry. And while this strategy of joining and layering of parts does not preclude rich and unique pictorial solutions it does explain why the medium is not more favored by monotypists. Additionally, while oilbase and waterbase pigments allow for the printing of ghost images, acrylics, due to their rapid rate of drying, do not easily give up their ghosts. However, given the limitations, the very troubling drying characteristic constraining acrylic's easy use is transformed in this invention to an advantage simply by eliminating pressure as the transfer device and accepting acrylic's basic physical nature as a casting medium.
Most artists working with acrylics have, at one time or another, observed the ease with which the dried pigments peel from slick, non-absorbent surfaces such as glass or china plates used as palettes. What has not been associated with this phenomenon (acrylic's inherent peelability' and flexibility) is, in essence, a valuable clue pointing to a radical direction in the making of monotypes. That is, when acrylic is painted on a glass plate and then allowed to thoroughly dry it may be easily lifted off revealing its underside contact imagery. In other words, an acrylic monotype is made by working with the intrinsic physicality of the medium. This approach opens up a number of new possibilities in the way drawn, painted and collaged monotypes and assemblages can be made. In essence, what is proposed here is to make use of the way acrylic is transformed in its drying process becoming as it does a continuous polymerized, flexible and malleable film. Removal of such a paint film from a plate surface is, for all practical purposes, no different than the lifting of a cast from a mold. And, in addition to acrylic'natural casting attributes, it also acts as a bonding agent allowing for the inclusion of other materials and the use of other media.
In the proposed method acrylic paints, that may be modified by retardants, flow release liquid, acrylic media and gels, may be used separately or in combination with most other media such as oilbase and waterbase paints and inks, crayons, oil paint, sticks and markers in the creating of monotypes and monoprints.